The coastal city of Xiamen, East China's Fujian province, strengthens efforts to advance innovation-driven development. [Photo/xmnn.cn]

The coastal city of Xiamen, East China's Fujian province, has been strengthening efforts to advance innovation-driven development over the past few years, local news reported on April 15.

The nano blue light blocking technology developed by a Xiamen-based company was awarded a gold medal at the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, which was held online from March 10 to 14, showcasing the city's strong innovation capabilities.

Designated as a special economic zone in 1980, Xiamen has consistently produced innovative city development plans.

The city is now home to more than 2,500 high-tech, high-growth, and high-added value enterprises and is expected to cultivate 300 national high-tech enterprises this year. These enterprises have advanced the transformation and upgrading of Xiamen's traditional industries.

Advancing opening up and development

Data show that Xiamen's foreign trade expanded 33.6 percent year-on-year to 120.24 billion yuan ($18.42 billion) in the first two months of the year, and its actual utilization of foreign direct investment reached 3.39 billion yuan, growing by 10.5 percent year-on-year.

"We will leverage favorable policies from the government and focus on institutional innovation to achieve a higher-level of opening-up," according to an official of the Xiamen Area of the China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

Xiamen has pursued a unique path toward independent innovation. Statistics show that in the six years since its establishment, the Xiamen zone has implemented 448 innovative measures, including the reform of the business registration system, the "single-window system" for international trade, and a reform separating permits from business licenses. One hundred of the measures were pioneered in the zone.

Fostering new growth drivers

Efforts have been made by the local government to accelerate industrial transformation and upgrading and enhance core competitiveness over the years.

Xiamen is now ramping up efforts to cultivate 12 industrial chains worth 100 billion yuan and aims to set up a modern industrial chain focusing on high-end manufacturing and modern services.

The integrated circuit industry in Xiamen reported a year-on-year growth of 11.6 percent to 26.56 billion yuan in 2020, and the annual output value of the city's new materials industry totaled 87.96 billion yuan last year. Meanwhile, the total revenue of the software and information services sector was 197.26 billion yuan, up 13.8 percent year-on-year.

Xiamen has cultivated nine industrial clusters, each valued at more than 100 billion yuan, for the panel display, computer and communication equipment, machinery equipment, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferencing, and exhibitions), and financial service sectors. The city is also home to six national industrial bases for the photoelectricity, software, biomedicine, tungsten materials and audio-visual communication industries.

The industrial structure also continued to be optimized, with the proportion of the three major sectors changing to 0.4:39.5:60.1. Emerging industries in Xiamen have been booming in recent years as well.

The Xiamen Area of the China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone accelerates its digital transformation. [Photo/VCG]

The coastal city of Xiamen, East China's Fujian province, strengthens efforts to advance innovation-driven development. [Photo/VCG]